


home is where the heart is.

by sophihilism



Category: iKON (Korea Band)
Genre: AU, Angst, Domestic!AU, Drabble, Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life, Smut, basically a place where i can dump my binhwan domestic scenes for years and years to come, de facto couple, linear, longfic, ongoing fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-08 12:03:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13457865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophihilism/pseuds/sophihilism
Summary: the adventures of hanbin, jinhwan, obang, and living in one apartment in their early twenties, where waking up beside each other comes with testing triumphs.or: a linear domestic!au longfic where binhwan face the ups and downs of a five year relationship.





	1. worth its weight in gold.

**Author's Note:**

> finally i can start my binhwan domestic!au!!!  
> i've always loved fics that have aimless plots and update endlessly, so this is going to be the beginning!  
> trust there's going to be many ups and downs in this longfic.  
> warnings for: mild language, mentions of sex (but nothing..... yet)
> 
> i will title every chapter after a song! this chapter is:  
> james arthur - say you won't let go
> 
> " I'm so in love with you  
> And I hope you know  
> Darling your love is more than worth its weight in gold  
> We've come so far my dear  
> Look how we've grown  
> And I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old "

 

Hanbin is a heavy sleeper on most days, but when he's comfortable, he's comatose. 

Which means today, especially, on a lazy Saturday where there are no hours to fill with clocking into work, he has plans to doze off until at least noon. The world, however, seems to be against him. It had been a hot and heavy night, so they had left the window open to air out the room. Now the sun beats down in unfiltered strokes that blind his closed eyelids. Instead of the warm, caramel glow that comes with most 10AM mornings, he's sweaty, he's hot, he's uncomfortable. 

It doesn't help that Jinhwan sweats more than a sinner in church, either. 

The other is so contentedly tucked into his side, in prime position where he's shaded by the wall and not exposed to the offensive sunstroke. Hanbin can't take much more of this. Which means he's grunting, shifting to stand beside the bed and scratch over his bare chest. His eyes are barely open, just enough to drag his feet around their king-sized bed to the window, where he can push the blinds closed and pull the curtains over. The stale springtime air still suffocates the room, though, despite the monochromic shade that now washes over them both. So he's flicking on the switch that controls the overhead fan. and because Hanbin didn't have enough terrible luck, the fan groans, splutters, and doesn't start up. 

“You've got to be kiddin’ me.”

“... Babe?”

Jinhwan’s morning voice is one of Hanbin’s favourite sounds. Out of all the years he’s been composing and producing songs for people other than himself, Jinhwan’s morning voice has been the only thing that's just for him. 

But still, he hadn’t meant to wake him. He hadn't exactly been quiet, but Jinhwan could sleep through World War III, and then some. And so he abandons the fan to come to the other's side, his weight dipping the mattress on his knees. 

“Ah hyung, we need a new fan…” He complains first off, because he wouldn't be Kim Hanbin otherwise. Jinhwan hums as a way of replying, and Hanbin brings a hand up to sweep sweat-wet bangs from his forehead. “Didn't mean to wake you up, go back to sleep.”

“What time is it?” He asks instead, rolling over with a sigh to chase the other's comfort. Hanbin is weak for everything Jinhwan does, so he shifts to lie down again, ignoring their sticky skin to bring his arm under the other's head as a pillow, stretching out on his side and tucking the other into his naked chest. Jinhwan curls into the warmth, seemingly unbothered by the heat as Hanbin is. 

“It's ass o'clock, the damn sun woke me up…” Hanbin has to snort, even if he's watching the other in lazy awe, the back of his knuckles lingering over his cheek, over his favourite heart-stamped mole. 

“Don't be mad at the sun, ‘s just doing its job…” Jinhwan scolds him out of habit, and finally opens one eye, his bow-shaped lips pressing together and opening again. 

“Yeah, well, the fan should do its job too. I swear it's like fifty degrees outside, it's too much.”

“‘S only spring and you're already whining,” the hyung snickers despite himself, and they settle into a comfortable silence with the sounds of the morning slowly curing their sleep-drunk state. 

In the seven years Hanbin has known Jinhwan, from the middle of their high school years until now, he's never known him to look as comfortable as he does in his mid-twenties. Even if this is their third year living together, he would never grow tired of waking up to the way Jinhwan tucks his short fingers into Hanbin’s nape as he does now, how he noses into his collarbone, his lashes fanned across his cheeks. He's long forgotten to wear makeup at any opportunity, his confidence at an all time high now that he's known to accept the way he looks, and learnt to accept Hanbin’s endless compliments. 

Sweat dots over the collar of Jinhwan’s shirt, Hanbin’s shirt, a graphic white-tee that Jinhwan nabbed right off Hanbin’s back after last night’s…. escapades. 

His ears warm when he remembers it, still managing to feel sheepish after five years of finding home between Jinhwan’s legs. They'd fallen asleep quickly after cleaning up, Hanbin clumsily pulling up his sweats while Jinhwan had wiped himself clean, pilfering Hanbin’s shirt from the floor. It's still all he wears, just Jinhwan and his shirt and his eleven tattoos dotted along his arms, his collarbones. his chest, his ankle…. 

Hanbin is close to settling himself back down properly, one of his thin legs coming to slot between Jinhwan’s, when his world is interrupted by a rude bark. 

“Ah, seriously,” that's Hanbin, grunting from where he's buried his nose in the other's temple. He tries to ignore it, but there's a second yap, and a third, a shrill demand for attention. 

“Obang-ah…” 

But Obang, their three-year-old pug (or fur child, as Donghyuk says to tease them), knows how to jump up on the bed, but with a lot of difficulty. He's become lazy in his years, slow as he makes a b-line right for their faces. They're both met with a wet tongue lapping at their faces. 

“Obangie…” Jinhwan isn't annoyed, he's laughing, eyes still closed as he rubs over the pup’s short fur, a strong arm circling around his body. “Goodmorning, you little punk…”

“He probably needs to piss,” Hanbin knows the morning routine, but it's Saturday, it shouldn't be happening until at least 11 o'clock. 

“Well he's not the only one,” Jinhwan yawns around his words, rolls onto his back, and Obang takes it as initiative to step onto his broad chest, which makes Jinhwan laugh further. “Don't look at me, go and ask your father…”

“You're his father too…” 

“You're his first father.” 

“How does that even work.”

“Are you really arguing before midday?” Jinhwan kicks up one of his legs until it hits Hanbin in the side, and he whines on impact, shielding away. “Come on, go and take him outside. I'll get up.” 

“No, you won't…” Hanbin doesn't pout, but his voice rings with a sulk. 

“No, I won't, but we need to, soon. The guys will be over in the afternoon, and we have to cook for five bottomless stomachs.” 

“Oh yeah,” in all honesty, Hanbin had forgotten it would be their first get together of the new year, and that he'd promises Junhoe a round of manduguk for his troubles, seeing as he's as demanding as always. Yunhyeong had offered to cook, provided they pay for the groceries, which always ends up to be a haul when Bobby and his stomach the size of Seoul is involved. 

“Remind me we have to get wine too, and beer for Chanu,” Jinhwan interrupts his thoughts from where he's still patting down the folds at Obang’s neck, lethargic and slow. 

Hanbin can't help but snicker. “Chanwoo drinking is still an odd concept to me, no matter how old he is.”

“How would you know, mister sober.”

“Do you really want a repeat of your birthday last year…?”

“Absolutely I do, you were pretty hot, all drunk and needy…” Jinhwan is laughing at the memory, but Hanbin is flushing from the neck down, red staining under his chest tattoo. Even if it's a dim memory for Hanbin, it's one of Jinhwan’s favourite. 

“Yeah… well…. I don't need to be drunk to push you up against the back of the sofa, so…” 

“It sure is nice, though,” Jinhwan pushes his hair back from his forehead, and pats at Hanbin’s side to try and catch Obang’s attention. The puppy bounces over to him, and Hanbin is hopeless at being able to resist scratching behind his ears. “Maybe if you hurry up with Obangie, you can come back and we can have round two.”

Hanbin’s head jerks up. Jinhwan's eyes are clear. He's serious. 

“You still stretched…?” 

“Probably… if not. I'm sure you wouldn't mind.”

Hanbin has never gotten to his feet so quick in his life, making sure he steals a full, wet peck against the other's bottom lip before he's out the door with Obang barking at his heels. 

  
  
  


 

 

 

~~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey hey, guys! I propose a toast… to Jung Chanwoo!” 

“What! Why? I just got here…”

“Exactly, you finally left your room for once.”

There's laughter echoing around their apartment, from Junhoe’s barking baritone to Bobby’s trilling chuckle. Yunhyeong stands with his wine glass in the air, proud of his joke. But Jinhwan knows he’ll regret it later when it's his turn to play victim. 

“Next time, I won't come at all,” Chanwoo bites bitterly as he pulls off his coat — it must have gotten cold outside. Jinhwan, with his own wine glass in hand, is the first to stand and come and pat the younger on the back, happy to share their own private moment as the others talk in the background. 

“Then who would make me feel ten years older than I actually am…” Jinhwan is laughing, because he's a little tipsy already. The boys have been over only an hour but he'd popped the cork off his prosecco a little early while helping Hanbin unpack the groceries. Now his mood is infectious. 

“Hyung… why is that a good thing…” Chanwoo is wary, especially when Jinhwan reaches up to his height to hook an arm around his shoulders. 

“Because I get compensation, which reminds me… don't you owe me a drink?”

“Ah… about that….”

“Hey, uh…. do you guys smell burning?”

Hanbin is playing the role of host perfectly, both arms tipping over with bags of chips that Bobby instantly reaches for. At the same time, his head tilts up and he's sniffing the air, and he's right. There is something burning. 

Yunhyeong is on his feet and through to the kitchen, and all six boys chorus after him. 

“Don't burn my kitchen down!” 

“Ah, the demise of the Song Chef!”

“So  _ this  _ is how he started losing his hair, burning things…”

“You had one job, hyung!”

That's Hanbin again, and Jinhwan can't help but laugh at the way he threatens him, stopping him with a hand on his arm before he can go to the kitchen and make a scene. Hanbin looks back at his hyung, eyebrow raised. 

“Why don't you put on some music, babe?” He prompts instead, playing damage control. “I'm sure he's got it under control.”

“But…”

“How about some ACDC?”

“No, hyung. This isn't that type of party,” Hanbin is a music nut, but their tastes vary distinctively. But it's not a bother, because now Hanbin is momentarily distracted from the smell of burning bokkeumbap that billows into the room, instead fishing out his phone to play around with the docking station in the corner of their living room. 

“Obangieeeee~~~ look at you, you fatty!” Donghyuk has made himself at home on their couch, all smiles and two beers down. He's got the pup in his lap, and Obang is flopped over his knees like a lifeless animal. “What are these guys feeding you?”

“The whole shop, I betcha,” that's Bobby, coming to settle on Donghyuk’s other side with his own can of Hite in his hand, his crooked teeth ghosting after his words. “Yo, Jinan. Ever thought about getting a cat?”

“Negative,” Jinhwan replies, coming over to take a seat on the single couch beside them, his legs crossed and his wine glass propped on his knee. “Hanbin is a dog exclusive guy.”

“I am not, we just don't have time for a cat,” Hanbin is quick to defend himself from across the room, where Junhoe is nagging him to play his favourite song. No doubt, the first keys of Billy Jean circle through the room, so Junhoe must have won some kind of bet. 

“That's some kinda bullshit!” Bobby is animated on a normal day, not to mention when drunk, his arm swinging out when he talks. “You don't gotta even wash cats, they're self cleaning, self eating, self-shittin’.”

“Even Chanwoo could take care of one,” Junhoe sparks up, coming over to ruffle the youngest’s hair, who's settled on the floor beside Jinhwan's feet. 

“What makes you guys think I'm so incapable? I'm living out of home, now…” Chanwoo defends himself, swatting at the way Junhoe cups a hand around the back of his neck and coos. 

“How is the dorm life, anyway?” Jinhwan asks because he's generally interested, spoken around his next mouthful of wine. Hanbin appears next to him, having nowhere to sit, and Jinhwan tugs him down onto his lap, his arm strung loosely over his middle. Hanbin grunts, but stays quiet while Chanwoo’s big eyes watch them both, and he answers. 

“Yeah… I mean…. I can't complain, only that we have a curfew, and there's no girls allowed inside….”

“So… what you're saying is…. you want girls inside your dorm?” Donghyuk is the first to jump on the opportunity, still rubbing his fingers along Obang’s stomach where he's lying on his back to rob as much attention as he can. 

Chanwoo is caught off guard, spluttering over his next sentence. “No! It's not like that!”

“As expected… of our  _ chaebol _ Chanu,” Junhoe’s voice piques over the rest, sing-songing his next tease. He leans against the wall and Jinhwan watches him from the rim of his glass as he sips again. “It reminds me of back in college… when I had my first girlfriend…”

“You didn't have a girlfriend, you punk…” Bobby laughs, his legs spreading and taking up most of the couch. 

“Hey, you know, that couch can fit four people, usually,” Hanbin’s voice pitches in a whine, and Jinhwan smacks at his stomach to silence him. 

“I did! I had three girlfriends!” Junhoe is quick to defend himself, his eyebrows high in his dark hair, his mouth open and full of noise. 

“Are you sure they thought that way?” Bobby snickers. 

“What are you even saying right now?”

Jinhwan downs his drink and is about to step in to save the situation when Yunhyeong does it for him, wearing a pair of oven mits and carrying over two bowls, one of manduguk and one of kimchi bokkeumbap. On cue, Junhoe is silenced. 

“Bon appetit,” Yunhyeong acts exotic as he places both bowls on the coffee table with a hearty  _ clunk _ , and like vulchers, the boys flock to the food. “Will you guys hold on! I haven't even gotten the chopsticks yet…”

“Who needs chopsticks?” 

“Kim Jiwon, your mother didn't raise you to be a savage.”

Hanbin takes the initiative to get the cutlery, and delves them out to them all before they starve. They eat while gathered around the table, talking around mouthfuls of rice and soup and sips of beer. They catch up because it's been a long time since they saw each other, last Christmas, to be exact. They talk about the songs Hanbin and Bobby are producing at YG, about the modeling jobs Junhoe has landed in the new year, about Yunhyeong’s cafe where Jinhwan works and the grueling new schedule of Donghyuk’s third year pre-med degree, as well as how Chanwoo is handling his change of major, from advertising to business marketing, like his parents wanted. 

Hanbin has stolen the seat by Bobby, having finally nagged him enough to move, but he's also stealing glances at Jinhwan as they both finish their meals. They always seem to gravitate to each other. 

Yunhyeong is telling a joke that makes everyone groan, and Jinhwan doesn't miss the way Bobby slips an arm behind the couch and around Donghyuk’s shoulders, idly and intrinsically. They've been living together for years, but they're not  _ together  _ together. They might as well be, and everyone knows it, everyone but them. 

Hanbin and Jinhwan talk about it often, like a running joke to how blind they are, how they seem to act like opposite poles, magnetising away from each other. 

“But if they get together, we won't be the token couple anymore…” Hanbin had laughed after a night of noraebang, where Donghyuk and Bobby had been hanging off each other. And at that time, back home in the confines of their own Hongdae apartment, he had been hanging of Jinhwan too. 

“Yeah but…. don't they deserve it? It's perfect,” Jinhwan had said as he combed his fingers through Hanbin’s overgrown bangs. “And besides, think of all the double dates…”

“Still, we win on the couple scale…” Hanbin had whined. 

“Jinan hyung… hey,” Hanbin clicks his metal chopsticks in front of his boyfriend’s face, and Jinhwan comes back to earth with a few blinks. “You're about to spill your wine, babe.”

“Oh, shit.”

He catches it just in time, just enough to catch the tail end of the conversation too. Junhoe is reciting a poem and Bobby is mocking him until he gets a piece of kimchi flung his way. But Jinhwan is watching the profile of Hanbin’s face, fascinated by the way that after five years, they're still so in tune with each other. 

“Hyung, how are the lessons going?” Donghyuk speaks up around where Junhoe and Bobby are arguing, leaning over the table for more food. Jinhwan clears his throat, pushing his wine glass between his knees to rub at the back of his neck. He doesn't like this topic. 

“Ah, yeah….” Even if he's comfortable to talk about most things with the six of them, this is something that not even Hanbin will bring up often. Now his words seem stuck in his mouth, stuffy and heavy like cotton-wool. But Donghyuk watches on with the best of intentions. 

“They're going okay. ‘Blo hyung says I'm getting a lot better…” He doesn't go into the details, but Donghyuk smiles anyway, and Jinhwan's heart warms enough to continue. “I don't know if I'll ever be as good as before, but yeah, it's enough…”

“Not with that attitude ya won't,” Bobby has finished poking the fire with a stick, the fire being Koo Junhoe, who is now disgruntled as he finishes off his meal. “That's the only way, hyung, you gotta think positive to live positive.”

“It's more than that…”

“I mean, it certainly does help. Some types of positive thinking even seem to cure cancer...” Hanbin echoes him, which makes sense. Bobby and Hanbin have spent over seven years as friends, so their minds seem to function on the same wavelength. 

Donghyuk, the medicine student, is the first to dispute it. “As much as I'm a fan of optimism, I don't think there's anything scientific behind that…”

“As much as I'm. a fan of pessimism, don't be a buzzkill, Donggu,” Hanbin kicks out his leg toward the younger, but Donghyuk dodges it with a laugh. 

The meal ends with more jokes and more jabs and Obang licking at their heels for his share. While Hanbin goes to feed him, Jinhwan is collecting their dishes and Bobby is grabbing another round of drinks, saying something about a game of Go-Stop. Jinhwan takes time in the kitchen to at least wipe off the dishes, because he can't stand mess. He's stacking them in the sink when he feels a pair of hands circle his waist, a pair of hands he would know anywhere. 

“Hey,” Jinhwan hums, his hands wet from rinsing the plates. He leans back into where Hanbin holds him, where his arms loop around him from behind. “Can you pass me the hand towel?”

“Nope,” Hanbin answers, because he's a punk on most days. “I just came for a kiss.”

“Well, how could I deny that?” Jinhwan is easily swayed, especially with Hanbin’s breath fanning over his neck. He twists in his arms, enough so that they're chest to chest, his stubby fingers coming up to fold into he collar of Hanbin’s hoodie. 

Hanbin was once never good at initiating their kisses, once too sheepish and too unsure, but now he's wearing a rectangular smile as he dips down and takes Jinhwan’s mouth. The kiss tastes like white wine but Hanbin doesn't mind when he has Jinhwan humming, littering a few mouthy pecks over his top lip. Hanbin’s mouth has always been pillowy and big, and so are his kisses, and Jinhwan is melting into his arms with his lips parting, sedated from being two glasses of wine in. 

“You're really…. doing your most….” Jinhwan manages to mumble, but that just gives Hanbin more space to fill with his tongue. 

Hanbin is licking into mouth and cupping his big palms around the swells of Jinhwan's ass when they're interrupted with a whistle. 

“Hey, perverts!” Jinhwan has never been more annoyed at the sound of Bobby’s voice, shattering through them from the threshold of the kitchen to lounge room. “Stop suckin’ each other’s faces and come and play with us!”

Hanbin is then throwing the first thing he can reach, which is the hand towel that Jinhwan needed earlier, chasing Bobby out of the room in the middle of calling him a cockblock. 

Jinhwan has to sigh, his hands planted on the counter and his head tipping back, and even if he's left feeling a little too keyed up, he's smiling to himself. On the way back to the lounge room, he stops at their bedroom to snag his acoustic guitar. He doesn't want to play the game of cards, because playing games with the seven of them is dangerous, so instead he sits on the couch with his legs folded, strumming a few chords. 

But he won't sing. Not again. Not yet. 

“Go… no… stop!” Junhoe is fiercely competitive as they all are. so much that he's grabbing at Chanwoo’s arm before they can go any further, his voice raising. “Stop cheating! Did you guys see that?”

“You're too slow, it's not your turn anymore,” Yunhyeong is the one with the most patience besides Jinhwan, so he acts as the rule bearer. Donghyuk is laughing against Bobby’s shoulder. 

“This game is stupid, stupid! What's the point!”

“The point is not to play with big babies like you!”

Junhoe throws down his cards and chaos ensues, and between it all Jinhwan plucks a few chords and meets eyes with Hanbin, and they know there's nowhere else they'd rather be.

 

 

 

 


	2. you rule the five senses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy ikon comeback guys! how good is return?!?!  
> i wrote this while streaming the album, i'm in love!  
> warnings for mild language and blowjobs. more coming soon! enjoy some binhwan.
> 
> ikon - beautiful 
> 
> " 너의 목소린 여름의 노래  
> 너는 향수 같아 red wine  
> 입술 마시다가 취해 죽게
> 
> your voice is the song of the summer  
> you’re like a perfume red wine  
> i’ll die getting drunk on your lips "

  


Jinhwan sits behind the piano and stares at the monochromic keys. He counts a few with lingering fingertips. mapping over the ivory, but he won't press them. They speak a different language than the one he knows now.

“Hey, bud, you good?”

Jinhwan blinks back to attention, the apartment stabilizing back into proportion, like an out of focus camera lense. He blinks a few times, because Tablo is looking at him from the chair he's pulled up, his guitar in his lap, his expression neutral.

“Eh? Sorry hyung,” he's shaking his hair out, rubbing his palm over the nape of his neck in a habit, laughing at himself. “I lost myself for a moment there.”

“It's okay, I was just saying. We have to finish up soon.”

“Oh, right, yeah.”

The elder of the two is placing the guitar down then, propped between his legs because he's writing something in the notebook he uses every session. Seungwoon had been an introduction from Junhoe, who had advised Jinhwan very carefully to call him Tablo. Jinhwan had gone into his first meeting expecting to be scolded and scorned, especially by someone who has a pseudonym. What he hadn't expected is two years later, to still be in the same chair, with a friend by his side that's at least ten years older than his own age.

As Tablo continues scribbling his final notes, he's mumbling to himself, the little lines in the corners of his eyes creasing. Jinhwan takes time to start gathering up his things — his coat, his travel mug, his phone — glancing around to make sure he hadn't forgotten something. Tablo’s apartment is an organised mess, with storage crates of toys and plushies for his young daughter, folded washing in the corner, a flat screen television on mute behind them. It's nothing professional, but Jinhwan likes it this way. He feels at home here.

“Hey,” Tablo says again, all while lifting the pen to tap it against the back of Jinhwan's perfectly rounded head. He flinches. “You did well today, don't look like that.”

Jinhwan isn't sure what he looks like, but he knows Tablo is lying.

“Are you picking Haru up from something?” He changes the subject as Tablo stands to collect the music sheets from the top of the piano.

“No no, not really, she has something on at school, so I'm going to watch it. Some kind of drama performance. She was very excited about being the fish,” he laughs, and Jinhwan can't help but follow.

“Father of the year,” he compliments, and he means it, his mood lifting at the thought.

“Eey, you gotta do what you gotta do. You'll do it someday too.”

“Yeah… maybe….”

“Don't stress so much about it. Or about… this,” Tablo speaks with years of wisdom under his belt, pushing up the sleeves of his thin sweatshirt as he relays his advice, Jinhwan listens, his head tilted to look at him. “Instead, just enjoy your twenties. They go by quickly, trust me.”

Jinhwan laughs again, this time with bitter notes. “Sometimes I feel like I'm turning fifty.”

“You need to go out then, live it up man. Make memories,” Tablo says.

“I don't know,” Jinhwan stands and pulls on his jacket with his own sort of pessimism, pushing his hair back from his forehead. “Hanbin doesn't like meeting new people.”

“Who says you gotta meet new people? Go to a new cafe, or a new part of town. Haru took me to a skatepark last week. If you go, get a video of that punk falling over for me.”

“If anyone will fall over, it's going to be me.”

“Okay well, don't do that. I like you too much.”

“Me too, hyung,” Jinhwan is smiling a hair-pinned smile, all teeth and pinching his cheeks up, and it's genuine. He goes to see himself out, careful not to trip over Haru’s toy trucks on the way, taking steps bigger than his little legs can handle. “Same time next week?”

“Actually, do you mind if we do Friday? I have a date….”

“Oh, of course. Tell Hyejung I said hi.”

“Will do, I'll text you.”

“Thanks hyung.”

On the way home, Jinhwan grabs an Americano and tries to ignore the way he always feels like after these sessions, like a failure.

 

 

  
  
~~~~  
  
  
  


 

He's fumbling with his keys at the front of the door when he hears a voice that he would know even at the ends of the earth.

“Yah! What's in your mouth? What is it? Give it to me!”

And Jinhwan catches himself smiling as he foregoes the mission of his keys, because the door is unlocked already. He hadn't expected anyone to be home, so to see Hanbin’s Balenciagas haphazardly kicked to the wall and his trench coat hanging over one of the lounges makes him warm with the thought of coming home to a full house. The apartment smells like leftover bokkeumbap and sounds like a war zone. In the middle of the living room, Hanbin is in a hoodie and wrestling with Obang on their faux fur rug.

Obang is winning.

“Did you eat Jinani’s figurine? He's going to kill you!”

“My what?”

Hanbin actively tries not to swear around Obang, further adding to the “fur child” theory, but he drops a strangled profanity as soon as he realises he's not alone, looking up from where he's on all fours and trying to pry the pug’s mouth open. Obang isn't having a bar of it, disgruntled and shaking out his ears, making his collar tags clink together.

“Hyung!” Hanbin jumps like he's been caught red-handed with another man, his choppy bangs fallen over wide eyes. Jinhwan chokes back a laugh, because this is very serious. “I didn't know you'd be home so soon…”

“I didn't know you'd be home at all,” Jinhwan takes his time to toe off his combat boots, placing them neatly in their storage box, takes his time to draw out the torture, the suspense. “What was that, about my figurine?”

“Uh…” Hanbin hesitates, shifting back to sit on his knees, leaning on his bare shins. He's rubbing his chest, over the zip of his hoodie.

“Well?”

“Your Woody figurine, Obang might have — oh no, wait!” He's never seen Hanbin move so fast, fishing his thin hand under the couch beside him, and then brandishing the said figurine, Jinhwan's favourite. “False alarm, we all good.”

“You're lucky, I was about to kill you both,” Jinhwan steps into the room, and he can see the other gulp. The elder comes to take the toy and look it over, then start polishing it on his jumper sleeve. “Obang I could have forgiven, but you….”

“Yeah, missed you too, hyung….”

“Why are you home anyway? Didn't you have a full shift?” Jinhwan places the figurine in a safer place, above their docking station beside their second-hand TV screen, a gift from Bobby last year. Then he's on his knees beside Hanbin to greet him with a kiss on his cheek, and Obang with scratches behind his ear.

“Uh yeah, but Bobby had to do some solo stuff and I had done my work for today. He said I could have a break, and I forgot my wallet,” Hanbin clears his throat, as if it's not typical behavior for him to forget everything. “So I came home and ate lunch instead.”

“Why didn't you call me? I could have treated you,” Jinhwan says.

“Well yeah, but I didn't wanna interrupt you, you know? It's important stuff.”

“You're important stuff.”

“It's fine, hyung,” Hanbin, so full of affections, shifts forward until he's close enough to tuck some of Jinhwan’s long bangs behind his ear. He knows Hanbin likes his hair like this, overgrown and dyed fawn.

“I had a shower, anyway,” Hanbin is continuing, rocking back on his heels until he can stand up. It's then that Jinhwan notices that his skin is damp under the hood, dewy and sheened. Jinhwan stands too, a little slower because his bones are weak. “Are you hungry? There's some food leftover from Yun’s cook.”

“Nah, I ate at a cafe.”

“And you didn't get me a chocoshake?”

“You didn't ask.”

Jinhwan _does_ ask about Hanbin’s latest project though, all while picking up his boyfriend’s empty bowl and taking it to the kitchen. It's spotless, which is a relief, but he still rinses clean the few dishes in the sink to save for the hassle later tonight. Obang follows him while he walks, right on his heels, until he gets tired enough to stretch out on the kitchen floorboards, like a lazy loaf.

“Would you believe it? Jaewon’s song sounds almost exactly the same,” Hanbin is speaking from where he's seated on the couch, his voice echoing into the kitchen where Jinhwan is. He can't tell if he's annoyed, or amazed. “So we decided to get together and collab for the next production.”

“Who's this one for, anyway?” He's done with the dishes, so he comes to lean in the doorway connecting the kitchen to the lounge, one hand akimbo on his hip.

“Ah, for Winner hyungs,” Hanbin is barely visible on the couch, but Jinhwan can see his socked feet flop over the ends, having stretched out that far. There's a beat of silence before he asks Jinhwan now. “How was your lesson, anyway?”

“Oh, yeah…. you know….” Jinhwan trails off, because it's not a topic he likes to linger on.

Hanbin knows this, but he asks anyway. There are no secrets between them, and Hanbin isn't a fan of skirting around things (unless it's arguments, which is a whole different story), but he also doesn't like seeing Jinhwan upset either. So instead, he sits up with a grunt, propping his chin on the back of their fake suede couch. He watches his hyung with a blank expression, watches the way he looks down at his nails, checking the cuticles as if he's trying to cure cancer.

“Hey, come here…” Hanbin finally calls him over with a plan.

Jinhwan only hesitates for a second before his sock-clad feet bring him to where Hanbin is on the couch cushions. He's got a faceful of Jinhwan's legs and that's all he needs. His thin arms belt around his knees and bring him down onto the couch, enough to pan him out over the cushions.

“Watch it,” Jinhwan acts defiant, but his body is pliant under his hands. Hanbin is smiling.

“I am watching it, and it looks great,” Hanbin says, because the other's tawny hair is fanned over the top of the lounge and his cheeks are flushed from his walk home. He leans down close enough to capture a kiss, one that tastes like kimchi, coffee and like home. Jinhwan parts his mouth out of habit, with a breathy exhale, and Hanbin fills the space on command, still holding behind his knees as he tips his chin forward to deepen the kiss. Jinhwan is practically humming underneath him by the time he leans up to take initiative, lapping past Hanbin’s fat top lip, licking fully into his mouth.

Hanbin grunts because it's always like this, their cat and mouse game together. Although smaller in size, Jinhwan is nothing less of a man, and Hanbin never treats him as anything less. He's more than capable of overpowering him, which Hanbin is wary of. Because he's very intent on being in control.

But yet, Jinhwan is too, especially with the way he flirts around the other's bottom lip with his tongue, sucking the plump flesh into his mouth. Hanbin can feel himself heating under his hood, flushed ears and nape not from his shower, but the way Jinhwan holds his forearms, keeps him that much closer.

When they break to breathe, Jinhwan’s lips are cherried red and Hanbin wants more. They're both breathing heavily, Hanbin wetting over his bottom lip. Jinhwan watching the movement. And they both know what that means.

“You, uh….?” Hanbin has never been good at dirry talk, even after all this time. But lucky for him, Jinhwan is mouthy.

“Wanna make you come? Yeah, I wouldn't mind,” the eldest laughs, his hands tracing up the other's arms, to his neck to hold him closer.

Hanbin blanks out, then clears his throat, “Well, if anyone is uh… coming, it's going to be you, ‘cause I just had a shower.”

“What's the difference?”

“I’ll have to do it all over again…”

“I don't know if that's a compliment to my skill, or just you being lazy…” Jinhwan laughs out again, and Hanbin smiles in a sheepish way, rectangular and pinching at his dimple. He can't deny that.

“Okay, okay, but make it quick. I have the afternoon shift and I need at least an hour to get ready,” Jinhwan continues.

“Where's the fun in a quickie?”

“Just kiss me, you punk.”

And Hanbin does exactly that, because Jinhwan is pulling him down into him with a hand cusped around his cheek, and he's sealing their lips back together where they left off. Now, he's claiming his dominance, shaping his thickset lips over the other's bottom fold, his nose tilted to one side. He shifts then, so he's straddling the other's hips, hyperaware of how warm he is when he slots a knee between the other's leg, flush up against his clothed crotch. Jinhwan makes a noise of assurance and Hanbin knows he's on the right path, even if his eyes are closed as he tips down for another kiss.

As Jinhwan starts to roll his hips down into Hanbin’s knee, chasing the friction, he can feel his blood rush southbound, feeling himself swell underneath his loose-cut jeans. He licks into his hyung’s mouth a final time, and then his eyes are open, and they share a look, a look of consent. Jinhwan's lips are bloated and kiss-slick but Hanbin bypasses them, littering his own down over his neck, nudging the fabric away with his nose. His hands wander, thin fingers pianoing up the other's shirt, and Jinhwan reacts with a lowly gasp and a firm grind down against the other's thigh. Hanbin has to swallow, he feels like he's about to burst.

“Um… did you pick up the dog food on the way home?” Hanbin hears the other say from where he's polishing open-mouthed kisses along his neck, where Jinhwan is sighing happily and bending into the other's body. Hanbin looks up, somewhat incredulous.

“.... You really want to talk about errands, right now?”

“It just came to me… mn….” Jinhwan's eyes are closed and Hanbin can tell he's trying to hold onto his last semblance of control, a hair's width between moaning out for more. Hanbin has to smile at that, and hide the shape of the smile back against his throat, his fingers seeking until his thumb pads against his left nipple, pinching it for a tweak.

“Ah —” Jinhwan’s body spasms in response, and he smacks against Hanbin’s back with his foot, looking down at him. He's flushed over his high cheekbones, behind his little mole. “Don't be rude.”

“You're the one scolding me about groceries,” Hanbin hums, and gets back to work.

By now, Jinhwan is rolling himself down into the other's knee, and Hanbin relents his teasing to start grinding the spanse of his thigh up and between his legs. Jinhwan falls apart with a throaty noise, a grunting moan as short fingers grab for Hanbin’s shoulders. And because Hanbin isn't a sadist, and because he wants so much more of those noises, he's bridging those kisses down the other's front, where the fabric of the other's shirt is bunched under his wrist, until he's on his knees between the other's legs.

Jinhwan is no amateur, wasn't even before they had met, which means he's quick to try and rid his pants, efficient as always. He's shucking his jeans down his legs, enough to reach where Hanbin sits, and Hanbin leans back to handle the rest, which almost involves getting hit in the face by Jinhwan's foot.

“Whoa, hyung — “ He laughs, catching his tattooed ankle. Jinhwan chuckles too.

“Sorry, got excited.”

“‘S okay, lean back for me?”

They work together like two parts of a song, stereo and mono, and when Jinhwan tilts back, Hanbin parts his legs and props them up and bent beside him. He's still in his boxers — white dotted with little black polkas. When Hanbin looks him over, he's pretty sure he's the luckiest man alive. He looks disheveled, mouth open slightly, his shirt gathered up his toned chest, his hair haloed over the cushions, his skin sheened in a light sweat. He traces further down, where Hanbin palms over the other's abdomen, down over one of his inner thighs. He's tonguing his lip because Jinhwan is swollen where he's tucked himself to the side of his underwear, and each time Hahbin grips the other's thigh, he watches his length twitch under the fabric.

It's beautiful.

“D… Don't be an asshole…” Jinhwan doesn't beg often, but it's in the back of his voice, when he sighs and lifts his hips up.

And how could Hanbin say no to that?

When he's given the green light. he's focused, blunt nails at the elastic of his waistband to pull it away, to string the underwear down with a little grunt from the effort. He has to push his own hair away from his eyes because he won't miss the sight, the sight of Jinhwan’s length flushed at the tip, curling up into his stomach in arousal. Hanbin exhales quietly, because he always gets a shock of nerves like it’s the first time. Jinhwan never fails to amaze him.

And so it's his turn to amaze, eyes rooted in his work, on his slender hand that comes to circle around the other's base, the flesh heavy from arousal and thick in his palm. He hears Jinhwan sigh from above him, but doesn't look up, because he's busy stroking him to full attention. Hanbin handles him roughly, because that's the way Jinhwan has learnt to like, when Hanbin doesn't treat him like something feeble, like a flower that would break in the wind. He's strong, he's confident, he's a man.

So Hanbin treats him that way, squeezing at his base and then sliding up to the tip. By the time the other is weeping with precum, he's also squirming under his ministrations, gasping out with his leg coming over Hanbin’s shoulder to bring him down,m, in a silent demand for more. Hanbin gives it to him, holding his shaft steady as he sinks down, his tongue lapping against the tip, rubbing little lines right into the slit. When he hears Jinhwan moan, he goes further, enough to swallow him past his pillowy mouth, and he knows he's wet and warm when he sinks down to where his hand holds the bottom of his cock. Jinhwan has always told him that he has the perfect mouth for blowjobs, because he's mouthy but precise, it must be a rapper thing.

Thinking about it now has Hanbin’s cheeks heating, just like the way his body thrums with electricity the next time he hears Jinhwan’s moan, echoed in the space just for him. He once was careful about his sounds, conscious, but Hanbin encourages each one with the way he sucks around him, drags his tongue over the underside on the way up, and looks up at him when he pops off his length with a wet sound.

“Fuck, Hanbinah, that's good — “ Jinhwan can't contain his profanities, can't control the way his hips hitch up for more, so Hanbin gives it to him.

He holds firm onto his thighs this time, free for his mouth to part over the head of his cock and push him down his throat. Hanbin has way too much experience with deepthroating, knows it's what can make Jinhwan come in a heartbeat, and he's not holding back. His hyung’s body starts to shake and jolt when he swallows him past his gag reflex, focused on breathing through his nose as he comes back up again to catch his breath. He repeats it, over and over, until he's bobbing friction along his length.

“Ah, Hanbinah — baby — “

Hanbin knows he's close, he doesn't need the audio cues. He can feel the other tensing underneath him, feel his fingers gripping in his hair and the way his length kicks on his tongue each time he drags his mouth down. His fingers come to squeeze and palm into his sack, that added pressure he needs as he rubs Jinhwan into the very back of his throat, and then his back bends and his body convulses, his thighs clenching up around his head, and Hanbin tastes him in a thick spill down his throat.

Jinhwan never shouts, not really, but he does cry out around the shape of the other's name, full of breath and tension as he jerks his hips into his high. Hanbin sucks him through it, kneading over his balls until he feels Jinhwan sigh and settle against the couch. And Hanbin swallows, because he's polite, coming off to wipe the side of his mouth in his sleeve.

“Ah…. it hurts….” Jinhwan says as he brings his leg down, wearing Hanbin’s favourite blissed-out smile. “Why do you have to be so good at that…”

“I didn't see you complaining about it…” Hanbin hums, crawling up his body. Almost instantly, despite how he lazes into the couch, Jinhwan has his arms around his neck.

“I'll give you something to complain about,” he threatens bottomlessly, roping him down for a kiss. He still tastes of salt and sweet, such a distinct taste of Jinhwan's release on his tongue, but Jinhwan doesn't seem to mind when he's kissing him with all the gratitude he has, and Hanbin feels himself heat again, his arousal pressed into the other's thigh.

Jinhwan seems to notice too, his thin eyes blinking as they part from the kiss, but Hanbin just shakes his head.

“I have like…  twenty minutes until I have to go back to the studio,” he sounds just as disappointed as he actually is.

But Jinhwan's eyebrows simply raise. “If you think it will take me twenty minutes to make you come, then you don't know how good I am.”

“Oh, I know _exactly_ how good you are. hyung.”

In reality, it takes ten minutes until he's painting the inside of Jinhwan's mouth white, and while the other smirks and swallows. Hanbin wonders what he did in a past life to get so lucky.

 

 

 


	3. like this, like that pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys... happy jinhwan day!   
> this chapter ended up getting too long, so i split it into two parts, this is part one.  
> what will happen in the next part? i guess we'll just have to see!!!  
> no mature warnings for this chapter, not yet ;)  
> see you in the next few days for part 2!
> 
>  
> 
> cashmere cat, major lazer, tory lanez - miss you
> 
> ' 24 hours in a day,  
> i think about you,  
> more than 24 times. '

bobby 9:43: hey guys what kind of wine does jinan drink??? I'm asking for a friend 

chanu 9:43: anything that's in a wine bottle 

chanu 9:44: wait… hyung… this groupchat has him in it 

bobby 9:44: …. o shit, hey jinani

 

Jinhwan has been reading the texts since the first one pinged on his screen, and he never thought he could be this appalled before 10 in the morning.

 

jinan 9:50: fyi jiwon, i like merlot the best

jinan 9:51: does this mean you forgot to go birthday shopping

bobby 9:51: what!!! it's your birthday today??? I had no idea… :P

jinan 9:52: you're an idiot 

 

He takes a right and almost bowls over an older woman with a trolley bag on the sidewalk, who matches his size and build. He's quick to bow in apology, and is gifted a pat on the cheek from a withered hand, a toothy smile that tells him it's okay, he's handsome. Still, Jinhwan helps her correct her bag and even presses the push-to-walk button for the crosswalk. That's his good deed done for the day. 

He's more careful then, careful to watch his steps on his way, to only check his phone when he's waiting to cross the road, the messages flooding in and flashing across his screen. 

 

dongdong 10:01: happy birthday jinan hyung!!! 

yunhyeong 10:02: happy birthday hwannie ;*

june 10:02: even though i said happy birthday yesterday, happy birthday today too 

yunhyeong 10:03: why are you like this 

dongdong 10:03: you're not special junhoe

june 10:04: you wouldn't understand, ws’re best friends 

jinan 10:04: ??? my best friend is a book

dongdong 10:04: oooo rejected for a book 

bobby 10:06: what book hyung? hmu

chanu 10:07: as if you even read 

bobby 10:07: WTF!!! I'm a smart guy!!! 

june 10:07: lol 

yunhyeong 10:07: lol

chanu 10:07: lol

 

Jinhwan almost misses his turn off, and he blames it wholeheartedly on Bobby, curses him under his breath. Maybe Junhoe too. He pockets his phone enough to finish his journey, basking in the springtime air, the crowd humming around him, nameless faces moving past him.  The streets blur around him, into lines of colour. The carts cooking street food billow mist through the commuters, smelling of mandu, of odeng, of tteokbokki and bungeoppang. Jinhwan doesn't stop, he's a man with a plan. His sister has food waiting for him, anyway. 

He keys one last message before he arrives. 

 

jinan 10:21: thanks you kids… i’m busy today, but let's meet up on the weekend for drinks??? my treat 

chanu 10:22: chicken and beer? 

dongdong 10:23: you're the best hyung!!! 

yunhyeong 10:24: let hanbin know, and make sure he doesn't sleep through it 

june 10:25: he's gonna sit next to me, of course 

bobby 10:25: love u jinan!!! 

 

It’s the last thing he has a chance to read before Givangchy almost knocks him down like a bowling pin. 

“Whoa!” He's catching himself on the doorway of his sister’s cafe, because his balance is as weak as his bones brittle. Here. he smells freshly roasted coffee beans and hears a welsh corgi yapping at his feet. Jinhwan instantly kneels to hold the puppy’s face in his small hands, cooing like he's found his first love. 

“Givangchyah — look at you — what has noona been feeding you…” When Givangchy rolls onto his stomach, right in the middle of the doorway, Jinhwan can't resist rubbing his bloated stomach, laughing outright. “Did you come because it's my birthday? Ah, I'm a lucky guy.”

“He came because he attracts the customers,” Seiyeon says from behind the coffee machine, her voice carrying across the ochre walls. From where Jinhwan is crouched, he can at least see her smiling, the same identical hair-pinned crescent to his own. His parents have always said if Jinhwan grew out his hair, he'd look just like Seiyeon. Hanbin had said it too, but it had earnt him a kick in the shins. 

“Why didn't you call me, noona?” Jinhwan stands with Givangchy in his arms, cradling him like a baby and grunting at the effort. Givangchy isn't as light as he was a year ago. “My face attracts crowds too.”

“Your face is busy these days, hi.” She finally greets him after wiping her hands on her apron, black cotton with ‘Platte’ embroidered in white, stitched with her own calligraphy. Her arms open and Jinhwan places Givangchy’s back down on the ground to step into them.

“Never too busy to come by and get free drinks,” Jinhwan holds her to him for a moment… he's forgotten what it's like to hug someone shorter than him. 

“I would hit you, if it wasn't your birthday,” Seiyeon’s appled cheeks push upward when she smiles some more, and then she's patting the other's behind to prompt him to move. “Go and get a seat, what do you want?”

“Cappuccino, don't you know?”

“Yeah yeah, it's already brewing.”

He's taking the seat closest to the window, enjoying the filtered light coming in from the street. It's the coldest spring Seoul has had for a long time, and Jinhwan curses the fact the Kims were born with less meat on their bones. But the cold can't catch up to him in here, where it's warm and smells like his brewing caffeine. He tucks a leg underneath him in his habit, drumming a finger against the table. The cafe is empty, but he knows it will be busy soon. For now, he laps up the uninterrupted peace, only joined by Givangchy who jumps up beside him. Jinhwan plays with the plaid-stitch bandana he's wearing as he talks to his sister over the sound of the milk whistling as it heats up. 

“So. what did you get from Hanbinnie?” Seiyeon is small, so he can hardly see her eyes over the coffee machine as she makes the drink. Jinhwan chuckles to himself. 

“Nothing, well — not yet. Let's hope he hasn't forgotten…” Jinhwan says across the space, holding out his palm for Givangchy to nuzzle into it. 

“How many birthdays has it been, five?” Seiyeon says while pouring the milk into the mug, tapping the jug on the ceramic until it turns silky and smooth. She knows how Jinhwan likes it. 

“Yeah, something like that… But one year he did run to the convenience store to get me a bottle of wine as a last minute gift….”

“How did you know it was from the convenience store?”

“He left the receipt in the bag.”

“That kid, what an idiot.”

Jinhwan laughs because he knows he is, but it's still one of his favourite gifts he's gotten, his cheeks pushing up in an eye-smile when he remembers it. 

“You haven't seen him yet?” Seiyeon is asking while bringing over the mug, her balance impeccable as she slides it across the table. She pats her knee after sitting down and Givangchy switches favourites, jumping over to let Jinhwan enjoy his first sip of coffee. 

He sighs before he answers. “Nah, he worked overnight. Some new project they have for the next comeback season.”

“And I bet that killed you, having an empty bed,” Seiyeon is being smart, laughing behind where she strokes down Givangchy’s back. 

“.... What? I’m not that pathetic.”

“Ah, lies. You're a guy that needs a lot of attention.”

“I do not! I'm fine on my own,” his mug clinks when he sets it down, his nose creased up as he does when he's irked. “if anyone is the needy one, it's you.”

“I'm only going to let you get away with saying that because you said it on your birthday.”

Jinhwan laughs behind the rim of his mug, taking another sip, the caramalised coffee warming his throat like he's wearing a scarf. “Speaking of being needy…”

“Oh no no no,” Seiyeon holds up one thin hand, stopping him before he starts. “Today isn't about me and my dating habits. It's about you.”

“Ah come on! Consider it my birthday present.”

“I have your real present here though. Givang-ah, go and get Jinani’s present,” she bounces her knees for the puppy to move, and when he doesn't, she's pouting. Jinhwan has a hard time believing she's older than him sometimes. 

“You should get more employees, maybe then you won't have to make Givangchy do your dirty work.”

“Do you want your present or not?”

He does. so Seiyeon scoots Givangchy away to go and retrieve it from behind the counter. She returns with two bags, one from her and one sent up from Jinhwan’s mother in Jeju. It's attached with a note of apology, that she would call him on the day but she was sending all her love. Jinhwan’s family isn't rich, so he knows why a plane up to see him on just another birthday wouldn't be possible. Inside there's a new leather bound wallet, one that even smells expensive when he unboxes it. Jinhwan is floored. 

“... How could she even afford this?” Jinhwan runs his fingers over the seams, astonished.

“The Christmas period was good to the business, or so she told me,” Seiyeon slides the next bag over, smiling a smile that's identical to the one Jinhwan wears. “Now open mine.”

The bag is big, big enough to fit the entire table, and Jinhwan has no idea what it could be until he pulls it from the wrapping. It's a frame, which confuses him until he turns it around to find a vintage Michael Jackson poster, from the Thriller era. It's Jinhwan's favourite. 

He loves it immediately, and he's so flattered that his cheeks warm even as he's moving to wrap his short arms around her again. And it's the first time in a while he's felt this kind of happiness. 

It's only when he's finished up his coffee, his conversations, and kissed both Seiyeon and Givangchy goodbye when he feels that same happiness again, flooding him from every axis. It stems from his fingers where he holds his phone to read a text he'd gotten while busy with his sister. It's Hanbin.

 

mambin 11:36: hurry home birthday boy

mambin: 11:39: did you think I forgot???

mambin 11:37: i have a surprise for you

 

 

Jinhwan has never wished his legs were longer before, not until the moment he wills them to carry him home faster.    
  
  



	4. like this, like that pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the second part!!! sorry it took so long... it ended up being so long....  
> warnings for pure pwp, and some fluffy binhwan  
> lap it alllll up cause i'm bringing on the angst next ;)  
> enjoy it!

 

 

 

 

Hanbin has always been patient, but this is a nightmare. 

In the hand of cards that was Kim Hanbin, patience, diligence and passion made up his Royal Flush. But like every Achilles. he has a heel. Which means that along with patience comes his low tolerance to most things that make up his life. A perfectionist likes everything in order. 

And nothing is in order when Jinhwan isn't there. 

Okay, he's being dramatic. It's not as if they exist co-dependably, that when Jinhwan isn't around, Hanbin doesn't know how to breathe. But it's been a good twenty hours since they've seen each other apart from a quick peck on the cheek, and Hanbin craves that apple-cheeked smile, that overgrown hair and searching fingers. He misses being home. 

Even if he is home, with little things that remind him of their life together; the photo frames of their trip to Busan on the entertainment cabinet, a retro record player Jinhwan bought him last Christmas, Obang asleep on the edge of the couch. Hanbin taps his phone on his knee as he lingers on each piece and starts to feel not so alone at all. 

“‘Bang-ah, shouldn't you look presentable for the birthday boy?” he mumbles to Obang, who is too far asleep to listen. 

He's seated atop of Jinhwan's present, a leather-bound computer chair, the one with wheels at the bottom. It was expensive, but putting a stop to Jinhwan complaining abot needing to upgrade their office is well worth it. Hanbin is proud of his purchase, the backing is plush and comfortable on his vertebrae. He knows he'll like it. 

His feet are on the floor and while he waits he's checking over the receipt of his purchase, because there's no one left to text and nothing left to do. His head rolls to the back of the chair and he idly starts to tear up the receipt in his fingertips, an old habit of his. It won't be until much later that he realises he might have needed that…. 

Obang hears the clink of keys before he does, his head lifting from the couch cushion. Hanbin mimicks his excitement, sitting a little straighter in the office chair. 

“.....- Yeah, yeah. I'm eating a lot. Mmhm. I think we’re just going to have dinner at home tonight. What? No, no, you know I like the quiet.”

Hanbin waits while Jinhwan’s voice floods the negative space, fills the walls and warms the apartment. He's on the phone, Hanbin figures it's to his mother. 

“Yeah, I'll tell him…. Okay, thanks for the present, eomma. I love you, okay. I'm hanging up now.”

“‘Bout time you got here.”

When Hanbin speaks, Jinhwan smiles. He's shucking off his coat to leave it on the first couch where Obang rests, the pup too drunk on sleep to do anything but claim the new material as his bed. He buries into it, and Jinhwan's attention is stolen until Hanbin swings in the chair a little, the clippings of the ripped receipt falling around like snow.

Jinhwan is walking over, his steps small but his intention clear, he's taking everything in. Short fingers raise to trace the leather of the arm rest, then over Hanbin’s arm as well. “What's this, my birthday party?”

“Yeah, and this is your present,” Hanbin gestures his hands out, his arms, showing off. 

“The chair?”

“No, me.”

“Maybe you should stand up so I can see the real present,” But instead, he brings his hand to the high back of the chair, tracking the stitching with a steady expression. His hair is unstyled from the dry wind, over his forehead in a middle part, his cheeks chapped and his lips slightly wet. Hanbin stares, unashamed. Jinhwan keeps his hand still before he's pushing the chair a little, letting it spin on the axis and stepping back to watch Hanbin spin around with it. In the momentum, he can see Jinhwan’s motion-blurred smile, gripping the arms of the chair for balance. “Wow, is it leather? It smells like leather. I love it, ‘Bin.”

“Yeah? Now you can stop saying I buy shitty gifts…” Hanbin tries to sound stable, despite his head spinning when he slows to a stop. 

“You don't buy shitty gifts… most of the time….”

Hanbin raises a brow, and so does Jinhwan. But he can't deny he's right. 

“Stay there, let me drop off my bag and come and appreciate the real present,” Jinhwan says, starting to step away. 

“Nope,” Hanbin may be lazy on most days, but he's quick now, a lanky arm outstretching to snake his waist. “Now that I have you, you're not going anywhere.”

“Even on my birthday?”

“Especially on your birthday.”

So Jinhwan drops his bag and forgets it by the couch, and Hanbin has him in his lap in a matter of moments, enough room on the plush chair to fit his knees beside his own matchstick-thin legs. Jinhwan isn't heavy, but he has a solid, comfy weight that settles across his thighs, facing him, and Hanbin can see him in high definition like this. He's smiling, they both are, Jinhwan's showing his top row of teeth and Hanbin’s curling rectangularly, both pushing up until they crescent their eyes. And they don't need to say anything, their bodies move in kinetic energy, only meeting with a chuckle as Jinhwan cups his fingers around Hanbin’s cheeks and Hanbin tilts their grins together. 

They kiss like that, with Jinhwan in his lap, and after years of clockwork together Hanbin knows how to kiss Jinhwan, knows that he likes the way he tilts his nose to the side, and holds his hands at the small of his back to keep him secure. He knows that he likes it when he initiates more, always that little bit uncertain in his own confidence, letting Hanbin lick lines against his bottom lip until Jinhwan's mouth parts willingly. He feels thickset fingers in the backs of his hair and that's his cue to tilt his head forward, lapping against the other's palate and down his tongue, sucking against his bottom lip until Jinhwan vibrates with a moan. 

“Mmn…” Hanbin teases when they break to breathe, more than appreciative of the flush on Jinhwan's cheeks. It's not often he's so willing to give up this kind of control. “Still want to go and put your back down?”

“Shut up, punk.”

But he spoke too soon, because Jinhwan chases back his mouth with the intent to bruise, sucking up Hanbin’s fat bottom lip, biting with the bottom of his teeth. Hanbin grunts, shifts underneath him, his neck flushing hot from the innate embarrassment that he still manages to find even after so long together. Jinhwan digs his knees into the cushioned leather below them to rise a little, his fingers fanned in the other's hair, still suckling his bottom fold into his mouth. Hanbin is taking over then, and all he can do is span his own hands along Jinhwan’s jean-clad ass, palming at the flesh with lewd intentions. 

“Yeah… okay…. that'll do….” Jinhwan gives idle compliments, his body reacting in the way it siezes up slightly in Hanbin’s lap, keyed in to the way he starts gyrating his hips, settling them back into Hanbin’s heavy palms. And Hanbin is ready to catch everything, strong thumbs that press between where the cleave of his ass is, heels of his hand that rub firm circles, that push him closer, inevitably right into his own crotch. 

And it's kind of all uphill from there. 

They move together, their breaths rushed as they pick up pacing, Hanbin with awkward precision being trapped under the other's hips but Jinhwan always has such careful movements. They're not kissing at all anymore, not really, just their mouths connecting in a hot mess of tongues, of teeth. Jinhwan holds fists of the other's shirts and Hanbin holds fists of his ass, but the friction is still more delicious than all of it. When Jinhwan rocks down, Hanbin rocks up, and all the material between them is enough to chafe and have Hanbin moaning out in no time. 

One particularly strong circle of Jinhwan's hips has the chair skirting along the floorboards shortly, and Hanbin plants a foot on the floor to stop them. “W-Whoa…” he laughs, breathy and shocked. “You're keen, hyung.”

“So are you,” Jinhwan isn't daft, not when he brings a hand down to cup against the front of the other's sweats, where Hanbin’s arousal has printed a line in the cotton. He swallows, because he's right. 

“Yeah, well…. you…. kinda….”

“Can I help you?”

“Can't we help each other…?”

“Mm,” Jinhwan seems lost in thought, all while he skates back a little to clear some space for the way he rubs his thumb where the other's swollen tip is hidden, kneading circles down his clothed underside, squeezing around his base in a semi-circled hold. Hanbin exhales shakily, his head falling back to the headrest. 

“Yeah, I suppose we can. We’re gonna need lube, though.”

“.... Right,” and because there's none in his immediate vicinity, and because Jinhwan is still squeezing pressure around his cock, he has a hard time thinking of a solution. He wets his bottom lip, looking around, before he's interrupting Jinhwan to ground his feet on the floor again. Hanbin leans forward slightly, and then uses his feet to start dragging the chair across the space, into the hallway, Jinhwan and Hanbin in tow. 

Jinhwan lets out a quiet  _ what the —  _ before he's laughing at the other's solution, one hand on the other's nape and the other on the back of the chair to keep him stable, to hold on. “You know, we could just walk — “

“This was an expensive chair, hyung…” Hanbin grunts in the effort, still dragging them through the hall, using maximum force by digging the balls of his feet and pushing off from the floor. “Gotta get all the use out of it.”

“Are you bragging to me right now?” Jinhwan says, amused from where he's curled into his chest for support. 

“Yeah, I am.”

“It's not working…”

“Says the one that's hard for me.”

“That's just because you're a hottie, you know.” 

“I'm glad you think so,” they finally reach the end of the bed and Hanbin takes a moment to breathe. Thankfully, Jinhwan is a man with a plan and he's off the other's lap to fish behind their pillows where they keep one of their many bottles of lubricant stashed. Hanbin has his legs spread as he watches him, all worked up and dishevelled, his shirt ridden up slightly from where Hanbin had accidentally pulled at it, and then he has an idea. 

“Hey,” he says, his fingers dancing over his top lip as Jinhwan turns around. The midday light that warms through the closed curtains shadows over his nose, over his bare face, over his lips, and Hanbin is in love. “You uh… you should take your clothes off.”

“You want me to strip?” Jinhwan tries to interpret Hanbin’s awkward dirty talk, and then he complies. 

And still through all these years, Hanbin will never get used to seeing Jinhwan naked, even if it's as normal to him as when he wears clothes. His proportions are perfect, muscled thighs and a strong stomach, broad shoulders that are inked with tattoos. Hanbin knows each word, each symbol and each meaning like they're his Bible. The Phoenix stretched over his ribs for rebirth. The cross on his collarbone for his faith. The atom on his inner arm for free will. Even the dumb Usher-style tattoo on his ankle that he's pretty sure means nothing at all. He knows his body almost better than his own, every mole, every scar, every place he sweats the most. Even now, as Jinhwan kicks off his pants (and folds them up, because he's a neat freak), Hanbin is in awe of his bronze-kissed skin, dotted in beads of sweat. 

Hanbin opens his arms from the chair, and Jinhwan comes to them. 

They start where they left, but this time Hanbin is won over by all the naked skin that he doesn't slow. Which means his lips are on his neck, suckling little footnotes across his shoulder, his fingers dipping down the pliant line of his back. When Jinhwan arches in a moan, Hanbin tips his head slightly, his mouth polishing a trail down his chest and to roll over his left nipple. Jinhwan's head tips back, his hair parting waywardly, his mouth open, and Hanbin starts circling his tongue around the nub and suckling it into his mouth. 

Jinhwan is needy by now, he can feel him, his arousal kicking slightly against his thigh. Hanbin entertains the prospect for a moment, letting Jinhwan push his hands up the front of his shirt as his own hand misses the fray to curl into the base of Jinhwan’s arousal. Jinhwan makes a guttural noise when he starts stroking him, flicking his wrist in needy precision, nothing gentle for Jinhwan. His hand covers him, jerking around his already weeping tip and Jinhwan is slowly coming apart for him, panting with the way Hanbin’s lips smack against his nipple, swell it to full erection. He's rutting into his lap, needing so much more, flushed and sweaty and  _ impatient.  _

“Come on, babe…” Jinhwan doesn't plead, never pleads, but he does ask. His voice is like honey, thick and dripping over Hanbin. “‘s my birthday, remember?”

“How could I forget…” Hanbin mumbles around his nipple, rubbing his thumb into the slit of his crown. 

“S… so….” Jinhwan's voice only falters for a moment, regaining it as he clears his throat. “So, I want my present.”

“You want it, hyung?” Hanbin stops, and Jinhwan sighs as if he's disappointed, or as if he's released from imprisonment. Hanbin’s lips are cherried dark, tinted, and he's smiling up at the man in his lap. “Alright then, spread your legs for me, baby.”

Jinhwan does as he's told as if he's been given an order, rising up slightly and sinking his knees apart. Then it's Hanbin’s turn, taking the lube that Jinhwan had dropped into his lap and squeezing a generous dollop into his hand. Jinhwan isn't too fussed on how much lube they use, but Hanbin is hypersensitive, so he likes him wet. which means he's spreading it over his thin fingers, his eyes on the way it sheens in the light. 

“Warm it up,” Jinhwan asks, shifting in his spot. 

“Yeah yeah, I know.”

He rubs his fingers together before he's leaning up to press a sweet kiss against the other's bottom lip, making Jinhwan smile, Then he's palming over his length again, keeping him distracted while his fingers come underneath him, crooked up so the pads of his index can circle around the folds of muscle of his entrance. Hanbin has done this thousands of times, knows Jinhwan’s tailored sigh, knows the way he threads fingers through Hanbin’s dark hair in continuous strokes, and he knows when he feels the muscle start to open around him that he's ready to continue. 

So Hanbin does, sheathing through the pleats of muscle, around the first few rings of resistance, slicked and skilled in how he presses inside. Jinhwan pulls that face he always does, with his nose creasing up, and Hanbin is sure to wait when he's knuckle-deep inside him, wait until the pillowly muscles of his walls start to lax, once tense and firm around his finger. It takes Hanbin a moment to continue because his dick twitches at the very thought of what those walls could be clenching around,  _ will  _ be clenching around. 

He opens him up in slow strokes, his tongue on his lip again and his eyes down on his work, where his finger disappears inside him. Jinhwan is taking it like a champion, no stranger, no amateur to this sort of thing. If anything, he's impatient already, rocking himself down against the twist of Hanbin’s palm. He hums, cupping around the other's crown as he starts to work him, stretch him open in hooking motions. By the time he moves to sink in a second finger, Jinhwan is a panting mess, his thighs slipping and his form weak, still desperate to fuck himself down on the younger’s finger — now making two, both of them buried inside him and rubbing circles into his walls, massaging him apart. 

“S… shit, yeah, that's good…” Jinhwan gasps out, a moan following suit. 

After he starts scissoring his fingers as deep as he can, a moment or two more, is when he feels Jinhwan sieze up around his digits, his back bend and his mouth open. The way his walls swell and shake around him is any indication that he’s found his favourite spot, and because Hanbin is a little shit, he strums both of those fingers right against it. Jinhwan gasps over and over again at the abuse to the button of nerves, grabbing onto the other's shirt, hitting at his chest. 

“S… Stop stop — “ He demands, even if he's still shuttering his hips down into the flicking fingers. His face is flushed, he's beautiful. “‘M gonna come…”

“What's so wrong with that?” Hanbin breathes.

“Want… want us to come together…”

“Oh, well. It's your birthday.”

He brings his fingers out from inside him and then Jinhwan has Hanbin’s cock hooked out of his sweats, pushing the pants down his thighs, slicking his length up with generous amounts of lube. Hanbin can't stand it for too long, because his tip is flushed red and his head is back, eyes closed, panting, because he's sensitive to any type of touch. 

When Jinhwan rises his hips, Hanbin holds the base of his length in turn, suspended in the moment where they watch each other, so trusting. Jinhwan sinks down with well-practiced precision, rocking his hips to open himself up little by little on Hanbin’s cock. Hanbin has a hand on the small of Jinhwan’s back, holding them both steady as the other's walls hug around him, and the pressure is so  _ warm,  _ so  _ wonderful,  _ that when Jinhwan moans out, Hanbin can't help but follow. 

“S… shit, hyung.”

“I know… I know…”

They take a moment, breathing heavily together, Jinhwan’s forehead matted with sweat and bangs, and Hanbin’s not much better. Their hands join on Jinhwan’s hips, their bodies connected so perfectly that Hanbin isn't sure where he starts and Jinhwan ends. He's nuzzled so deep inside him that he's forgotten what it had felt like, forgotten that the other's walls seem to cushion around him like they were made to shape him. 

He knows Jinhwan's ready when his walls clench once, and then loosen, and the elder is sighing above him, his back straightening out. They start slow, with Jinhwan simply rolling his hips but even that small amount of friction is enough, the heat making Hanbin’s full mouth open to hide his short breaths on the other's throat, sucking with the intent to bruise. Jinhwan's knees dip, squeaking on the leather, his walls stretching around him further and Hanbin’s eyes roll back every time Jinhwan tips his hips down. He chases it all the same, little circles upward, meeting Jinhwan’s angle. 

“‘S okay? Is it good, baby?” Hanbin asks because he's not sure if the creases in Jinhwan’s nose are for pleasure or pain, or both. He rubs over the other's chest, collecting sweat in his hands. 

“So good, ’Bin,” Jinhwan’s words shadow a groan, just as his back straightens and he shifts, and then he starts a fuller pace, one that has him nearly bouncing in the other's lap. 

“Shit, damn…” Hanbin gasps out at the newfound pleasure that thunders up his spine, his hips canting up from the seat as well. He can't help but laugh. “Lucky… this seat…. has good ergonomics….”

“You got ergonomics for an office chair?”

“Only the best for hyung.”

Jinhwan rewards him with a kiss, even though it's messy in their movements, in the way they both seek out that beautiful friction. There's something so lewd about the way their hips meet together with a sounding  _ slap,  _ but something so pure, so raw about the way they breathe together, their fingers knitting together to share this moment. 

After a while, he can feel Jinhwan start to slow, which he knows is his sign that he's getting tired. His stamina isn't what it used to be, evident in the way the other's thighs start to shake around where he's buried balls deep inside him. But Jinhwan is too prideful to admit it, so Hanbin stills him to ask instead. 

“Let's move to the bed,” Hanbin leads, breathless, mindless. “Wanna fuck you too…”

Jinhwan staggers to a stop with an exhale, and tries to hide that he's grateful. The breathless smile pushing up his rose-tinted cheeks gives him away. “Yeah, okay, hold on … “

They don't manage to stay connected, even though it would be a personal triumph for them, with Hanbin’s length slipping as soon as they tip over to the bed. Jinhwan is spread out like a four course meal, his legs open and inviting and Hanbin has to stop and thank whatever god is out there, if there is one, for being this lucky. And then he's nudging his hips between those honey-glazed thighs, his hands around his ankles to hitch them around his hips, and he's connecting their mouths just as he connects their lower bodies. He sinks back inside him, this time at an angle that has his tip nuzzling deep inside him, so deep that a few thrusts in, Jinhwan is seizing up and seeing stars. 

“ _Ah!_ ” He's always been mouthy in these situations, gasping out, blunted fingers pulling in Hanbin’s hair. “Yeah… yeah, right there, Hanbinah.”

“Right there?”

“Yeah, there. So good…”

Hanbin’s big hands hold his hips at an angle, spread over the shallow V of his pelvis, and then he's doing just as asked. His knees weight into the mattress and he's circling his hips down, fucking him into the mattress. His pace is sporadic, his technique too, more focused on driving the friction home, on slapping his hips forward over and over. Jinhwan is a mess beneath him, rightfully so, his body spasming and his arms belting around his neck, spiraling towards his end with gasping moans. 

Hanbin knows it's coming, can feel him clenching up around his cock, and a few more times he ruts into the other's spot until Jinhwan comes, untouched, in a moan of Hanbin’s name and a spurt of warmth against their stomachs. Hanbin doesn't last much longer either, grunting as the other's muscled walls close so tight around him, fucking through the friction until he too, spills inside him, the heat taking over him as he rides it out. 

They lie like that because they both like staying connected for much longer than needed, Hanbin draped over Jinhwan like a blanket, Jinhwan pushing his fingers through Hanbin’s sweat drowned hair. Hanbin presses languid kisses over Jinhwan's chest, boneless, lazy, spent. 

“Happy birthday, hyung…” he sighs. 

Later on, after they've shared a shower and two towels, ordered in some jjajangmyeon, jampong and tangsuyuk, eaten it in their laps on the couch while watching reruns of Infinity Challenge, with Jinhwan cradling a glass of wine and Hanbin a can of Pepsi, with Obang almost upturning a bowl of noodles trying to get his share, after brushing their teeth and sharing a minty kiss before Hanbin leaves Jinhwan to do his eight-step beauty routine by the sink, after Hanbin is done cleaning up the mess they left on the bed, and taken Obang out the front for a toilet break, texting Bobby about coming in late for work tomorrow …  after all that, they're finally tucked into bed, Jinhwan half sprawled across Hanbin’s chest, Hanbin idly scrolling through a webtoon on his phone as they speak. 

“The kids want to go out on the weekend,” Jinhwan remarks with a sleepy drawl, content and sedated as he rests his dewy cheek on Hanbin’s breastplate, his leg strung over the other's hip. 

“Mmn? Mm…” Hanbin mumbles too, distracted by his reading. 

“We should go to that bar around the corner, and the noraebang place…”

“Yeah, sounds good, hyung.”

“Are you working tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I texted Bobby, said that we wanted a sleep in. He said it's cool.”

“Good, because I'm not getting out of bed until at least two in the afternoon.”

“Hey, it's not your birthday in another three hours, you don't get that many privileges.”

“It's February, the month of Jinhwan.”

“I can believe that.”

He's placing his phone aside, because Jinhwan has his eyes half opened and dozing, and Hanbin strokes his fingers over his forehead, his bangs, completely tranquil. As he starts to stroke the other's overgrown hair behind his ears over and over, Jinhwan’s eyes close completely, and he sighs, his breath warm across Hanbin’s tattooed shoulder. 

“Had such a good day…” Jinhwan mutters, in his most truthful moments, when he's half-asleep. “Love you…” 

Hanbin smiles at that, tucking his fingers under the blanket, in the waistband of Jinhwan's boxers, just idly resting. “Love you too, hyung…”

“Thanks for the chair…”

“Thanks for the sex in it…”

“Don't ruin the moment, idiot…”

Hanbin laughs and turns off the bedside lamp, drifting off to the best sleep he's had in a long time. 


End file.
